actually, 100 points puts you in the top 5 in production usually. So that would be like 40 homeruns and 150 RBI's. A guy like thornton doesn't score a ton of goals, but has a ton of assists. So he'd be like a 30 Homer guy that drives in 150. In basketball, he'd be like a 22 PPG with 12 APG, or something like that. Someone like heatley would be like a Dwayne Wade in Basketball, or a Teixera in Baseball.

...but as we all know by heart by now, all this success can only be taken with a grain of salt, and the playoffs will be a true indicator of our grit and talent

still, danggg has the heatley trade been a steal...cheechoo is sucking, and who else was in the trade again? heatley is basically reliving the 2007 cheecho role and has formed a nice combo with thornton

every game we play either heatley, marleau or thornton have a point...half the time, all 3 do

It was a good trade, we also traded Milan Michalek. He's got 10 goals, and is a very good player, really fast and big. Cheechoo only has 2 goals and 2 assists. But the thing about Heatley, is that him and Thornton have good chemistry and it works both ways. When Cheechoo scored 56 goals, thornton was setting him up and he was blasting his rocket shot. But teams and injuries started taking that away. With heatley, he is a better skater and is more creative with the puck and can set up thornton as well.

Marleau is just great. Super fast, with a great shot. Good size, he's been skating through checks, and making plays.

Here are a couple differences about this year, and we won't know the real impact until the playoffs.

1. The third line is much better than last years. Malhotra, Ortmeyer, and Nichol have been great additions to the team. Nichol is a terror, and Malhotra is really solid.

2. The Worcester shuttle has produced some good players, and one has been a big surprise. Jason Demers has been good on D, he moves the puck well, makes nice offensive plays.

3. Nabokov has been much better this year. He's not giving up a ton of 5 hole goals like last year, and he's making the great saves as well. Maybe its the contract year, maybe its the pride he has after a down year last year. It's also an olympic year, and that worries me.

thanks for the feedback rob, though your comparisons to the mlb and nba stats are way too lofty (haha)

personally i think marleau is way overrated...hes doing good this season but his career up to now doesnt warrant recognition as "one of the best players in the league", which ive seen writers on espn label him as...he does well when thornton is dishing it well, and thats it

No man, its not too lofty, what thornton does puts him in the top 3 in production every year. Maybe the nba one was a little much with 12 assists ,but I just put it in terms of scoring and creating. Thornton is crazy. The game that heatley had the hat trick, he scored on two cross crease feeds where the d knew joe would pass. He out waited and fired a bullet pass perfectly on both.

As fpr marleau, I couldn't disagree more. Marleau scores most of his goals using his speed. Of course anybody benefits from joes vision, but patty does a ton of things to score goals. Don't know if you know this bit marleau is the sharks top playoff performer over the past few years, though he gets blamed for a ton of ****.

i see...yeah if ur comparing his assists to rbi's then that makes sense, i had thought that u were comparing his total points to rbi's, in which case itd be lofty b/c sometimes no one even reaches 150, whereas theres always ppl with 90-100 pts

marleau is a really good skater, but the fact that he hasnt been one of the game's elite can be reflected in the stats...hes had only 2 years of over a point per game ratio, and one of those years he was just barely over. most of the time he didnt even crack 70 points. the year thornton came over, he had 86, and in my opinion the elite, top 10-20 players are guys who consistently get 80+ points at the very least...these are guys who easily have the potential to break 90 points, and in their best seasons can crack 100...for marleau, his best is to crack 80

so in summary, for all marleau's speed, hes still never scored 40 goals in a season...most of his career has been mediocre, and while hes playing very well right now, career-wise i dont think u can justify calling him one of the best players in the nhl

btw the marleau/heatley/thornton line has produced another goal...another hat trick today? man this is totally reminding me of marleau/thornton/cheechoo days...cheecho would always score a goal with the other two assisting on it...crazy 3 man combo

TruE SExy wrote:i see...yeah if ur comparing his assists to rbi's then that makes sense, i had thought that u were comparing his total points to rbi's, in which case itd be lofty b/c sometimes no one even reaches 150, whereas theres always ppl with 90-100 pts

marleau is a really good skater, but the fact that he hasnt been one of the game's elite can be reflected in the stats...hes had only 2 years of over a point per game ratio, and one of those years he was just barely over. most of the time he didnt even crack 70 points. the year thornton came over, he had 86, and in my opinion the elite, top 10-20 players are guys who consistently get 80+ points at the very least...these are guys who easily have the potential to break 90 points, and in their best seasons can crack 100...for marleau, his best is to crack 80

so in summary, for all marleau's speed, hes still never scored 40 goals in a season...most of his career has been mediocre, and while hes playing very well right now, career-wise i dont think u can justify calling him one of the best players in the nhl

no way can you call his career mediocre. The guy does everything. The difference this year is he's getting more assists, and of course is scoring more goals. The guy is in his prime right now so he is bound to get better stats. Of course thornton helps, but you know, Marleau also had to deal with a whole doghouse phase with Daryl Sutter (think anthony randolph) and even a little with Ron Wilson. I think mostly because he wasn't so assertive, but he's been much more assertive recently. It also helps having Heatley, who is probably the second or third most creative with the puck, with thornton and boyle.

I wouldn't call him a top 10 player over his career, but he's one of those guys like a Shane Doan, Ryan Smyth, Brendan Morrow. Guys that can do everything, and are Character guys too.

Oh and about the RBI's , i must be stuck in the steroid era, lol. 150 is pretty rare. Howards been close and Arod did it a couple years ago, but i would say, compare thornton to Texeira.

Yeah, you know there shouldn't have had to be a comeback, the offense came to play. The Sharks dominated the play. One fluke goal to start, then the Sharks come back and immediately give up the tiebreaker goal. Nabokov was awful... people say there was defensive breakdowns, which there was, but that last goal by Stewart should have been stopped and that rebound off his clear was weak too. He showed up in OT, and hopefully that builds his confidence and the teams confidence in him. But the good thing was that the Sharks kept applying pressure, every line. They gained the zone and retained the puck, very different from game 1. It has to be demoralizing to Colorado that they were 30 seconds from going up 2-0. But at the same time, they were holding on for dear life all game, The sharks were all over them. But every defensive mistake was put in the net by Colorado and Nabokov has to be better. I think these things are important for the Sharks next two games:

1. Score early and keep applying pressure, Colorado is having trouble in their zone with the Sharks big forwards, keep that up.

2. Nabokov needs to make big stops and bail out his D sometimes, big saves often lead to big scoring chances the other way.

3. Douglass Murray needs to play with more discipline, the guy can bang, but needs to be more aware out there.

4. Ryane Clowe needs to continue kicking ass

I think Heatley will get going next game, he had a good game 2, missed an open net, but he's getting chances, Marleau needs to shoot more. Guy has a wicked shot, so use it, sure there is an open teammate, but sometimes you just gotta shoot.

Huge comeback last night, hopefully they'll get it going early and can really dominate the Avs again, but this time on the scoreboard as well!

RobDIKUM wrote:Yeah, you know there shouldn't have had to be a comeback, the offense came to play. The Sharks dominated the play. One fluke goal to start, then the Sharks come back and immediately give up the tiebreaker goal. Nabokov was awful... people say there was defensive breakdowns, which there was, but that last goal by Stewart should have been stopped and that rebound off his clear was weak too. He showed up in OT, and hopefully that builds his confidence and the teams confidence in him. But the good thing was that the Sharks kept applying pressure, every line. They gained the zone and retained the puck, very different from game 1. It has to be demoralizing to Colorado that they were 30 seconds from going up 2-0. But at the same time, they were holding on for dear life all game, The sharks were all over them. But every defensive mistake was put in the net by Colorado and Nabokov has to be better. I think these things are important for the Sharks next two games:

1. Score early and keep applying pressure, Colorado is having trouble in their zone with the Sharks big forwards, keep that up.

2. Nabokov needs to make big stops and bail out his D sometimes, big saves often lead to big scoring chances the other way.

3. Douglass Murray needs to play with more discipline, the guy can bang, but needs to be more aware out there.

4. Ryane Clowe needs to continue kicking ass

I think Heatley will get going next game, he had a good game 2, missed an open net, but he's getting chances, Marleau needs to shoot more. Guy has a wicked shot, so use it, sure there is an open teammate, but sometimes you just gotta shoot.

Huge comeback last night, hopefully they'll get it going early and can really dominate the Avs again, but this time on the scoreboard as well!